THE BISHOPS AND THE BUDGET.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXXIV, Issue 12936, 29 November 1909, Page 4

THE BISHOPS AND THE BUDGET.

A correspondent, "F. W. Whibley," writes in protest against recent remarks of the "Herald" concerning the attitude of the bishops towards the British Budget. Mr Whibley writes courteously and temperately, but his conclusions are not borne out by facts . The employer is not in a worse position than the worker, for lie pays himself a better wage than the worker gets. Moreover, the employer "toils and moils" to make money for himself. The worker, to a large extent, does the same to make money for others. The employer is no more free from anxiety than is the worker. The employer is anxious for his business, and no doubt the strain is often severe. But the worker is made anxious — very much so — by the problem of supporting a wife and family on 40 or 50 shillings a week — in England he is lucky if he have 14 or 15 shillings. He wonders how 'he can feed, clothe, and educate them, and pay his doctor's bill, and the rent. He is perpetually anxious about his support in old age, and is never free from anxieties the employer can sometimes put behind him. Mr Whibley's statement that the working man always turns to the church in sickness and distress is not borne out by facts. A few do, no doubt, but for everyone that does there are 20 who do not. In fact, Labour's aloofness from the church is a matter which the church frequently comments upon. Mr Whibley is right in saying that an Archbishop of Canterbury took the lead in wresting Magna Charta from King John — we presume that is "the great bulwark of English liberty" which he refers to. But, while Stephen Langton took the lead in resisting monarchical tyranny in 1215, Randall Davidson and his bishops stand back out of the way of aristocratic and capitalistic tyranny in 1909. Stephen Langton was a patriotic Englishman whose name is, and always will be, reverenced. Eandall Davidson will probably be chiefly remembered as one who bowed the knee to Baal.